TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The General Election Commission (KPU) said that a total of 101 foreign citizens were listed in the permanent voter list (DPT) for the 2019 election.

"The foreigners spread in 17 regions," said KPU chairman Arief Budiman on March 6, 2019, at the KPU office in Jakarta.

According to Arief, the agency instantly blacklisted the names from the list. "Until today afternoon, 12 provinces have deleted the names, and perhaps, only Papua [that has not carried out the act yet]," Arief added.

First news on this matter broke out across numerous social media platforms at the end of February. The news initially reported that a Chinese national by the name of Guohui Chen, had owned an electronic ID card (e-KTP) and was listed in the DPT of Cianjur District, West Java.

The news caused public uproar. The KPU then sent a letter asking the Home Affairs Ministry to hand out data on all foreign nationals listed in the voter list. Four days later, the ministry's Population and Civil Registry (Dukcapil) delivered the data to KPU and the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) as well.

The foreigners with e-ID card listed in DPT hail from 29 countries and resided in 17 provinces; Aceh (2), Bali (34), Banten (5), Yogyakarta (3), Jambi (1), West Java (10), Central Java (12), East Java (16), Bangka Belitung (1), Lampung (1), West Nusa Tenggara (7), East Nusa Tenggara (1), Papua (1), South Sulawesi (1), North Sulawesi (1), West Sumatra (3), and North Sumatra (1).

SYAFIUL HADI | RUSMAN PARABUEQ